


The Curious Case of Master Katara

by TheYellowTurtle



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Bisexual Katara, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, Katara Becomes the Painted Lady, Multi, Not Canon Compliant - The Legend of Korra, The most important tag here is Katara & Sokka, There's some zutara and yuetara but it's not the main point
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-08
Updated: 2021-01-01
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:15:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 10
Words: 12,246
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27961385
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheYellowTurtle/pseuds/TheYellowTurtle
Summary: In the sixth year of Fire Lord Zuko's reign, Master Katara of the Southern Water Tribe is assassinated.
Relationships: Katara & Korra (Avatar), Katara & Sokka (Avatar), Katara & Zuko (Avatar), Katara/Yue (Avatar), Katara/Zuko (Avatar), Minor Aang & Katara, Minor Katara & Suki, Toph Beifong & Katara
Comments: 90
Kudos: 143





	1. Prologue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Special thanks to [biscuitlevitation](https://archiveofourown.org/users/biscuitlevitation/pseuds/biscuitlevitation) for listening to me blab about this fic idea, and for the beta.
> 
> Note: This fic has nothing to do with The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. I'm just bad at naming things ;;
> 
> CW: Katara is killed & there's some minor description of how she died.

These are the facts: 

1\. During the sixth year of Fire Lord Zuko’s reign, Master Katara of the Southern Water Tribe was assassinated by the New Ozai Society. 

2\. An abandoned factory on the outskirts of Fire Fountain City was polluting the local water supply, and an alarming number of citizens were becoming ill. 

3\. Master Katara was aware of the reports that the presence of the New Ozai Society was growing in the affected area when she set off by herself. 

4\. Master Katara managed to purify the water supply before an ex-Yuyan Archer shot her twice through the neck. 

5\. Despite searching for days, officials were never able to recover her body. Only Master Katara’s necklace was found on the bottom of the riverbed. 

6\. Eyewitnesses to the event claimed that after being shot Master Katara simply vanished. 

These are the rumors: 

1\. Master Katara was forsaken by the patron spirits of the Water Tribes, and this is why she passed away standing in water. 

2\. Master Katara’s skills as a martial waterbender were greatly exaggerated, and this is why she was unable to defend herself. 

3\. Master Katara faked her own death in order to pursue an ascetic lifestyle. 

4\. Fire Lord Zuko was madly in love with Master Katara, and this is why the depictions of the Painted Lady in the shrines he commissioned greatly resembled her. 

5\. Koh the Face Stealer lured Master Katara into the Spirit World in order to punish Avatar Aang. 

6\. Unable to move on to the next life, Master Katara haunts the waters of where she passed seeking vengeance for her untimely death. 

This is the truth: 

1\. Master Katara of the Southern Water Tribe never, ever, turned her back on people who needed her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The majority of the fic is already written, so I'll probably post the next chapter tomorrow~ Toph is up first :)


	2. The Greatest Earthbender in the World

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Special thanks to [biscuitlevitation](https://archiveofourown.org/users/biscuitlevitation/pseuds/biscuitlevitation) for betaing this :) 
> 
> CW: some cussing, mentions of violence, brief mention of the desecration of a corpse, misogyny and Katara slander (as biscuit put it, Katara is "Cleopatra'd").
> 
> As you may have guessed from the title, this chapter focusses on Toph. Each character is going to get a chapter focussed on them, followed by an interlude.

An extremely popular saying in the Western Earth Continent, _to save the Fire Lord and Avatar in your past life_ , means that an individual is extremely skilled or fortunate in some way; so much so that the only way a person could have earned such a splendid life was by living a virtuous past one. 

The phrase references Master Katara’s actions during the final year of the Hundred Year War, in which she saved the lives of Fire Lord Zuko and Avatar Aang. Although initially not common knowledge in the immediate years after the war, Fire Lord Zuko and Avatar Aang would go on to confirm multiple times that Master Katara saved both of them with her healing abilities. Strangely enough, it was Princess Azula, Fire Lord Zuko’s younger sister, that landed both of these mortal injuries. 

However, it is mainly thanks to Master Toph Beifong that this saying became commonplace. While teaching metalbending, Master Beifong was known to ask particularly arrogant students, “Do you think you saved the Fire Lord and Avatar?” Often hearing this remark, Master Beifong’s pupils soon began to compliment one another by saying that an individual “must have saved the Fire Lord and Avatar” to be so skilled in the bending discipline. When these students finished their metalbending training they would go on to further spread the saying throughout what was then known as the Earth Kingdom. 

_-The Origins of Common Earth Phrases_

___

Toph knows who she is. She is the Greatest Earthbender in the World. She is the inventor of seismic sense, truth seeing, and metalbending. She is the teacher of the Avatar, and one of the people responsible for ending the Hundred Year War. She is a Beifong, but she has carved out her own destiny and chosen her own family. 

Toph knows who she is and she is proud of that person, but it’s not until Aang comes to her one day after her metalbending class that a part of her wishes that she was only the second best earthbender in the world. She could keep metal bending and seismic sense, but truth seeing? She didn’t need that anymore; she didn’t want it.

“Toph, Katara… she… she’s missing.” _True_. 

“What are you talking about, twinkletoes? What do you mean, she’s missing?” Toph can barely feel his heartbeat over the ringing in her ears. 

“There was an attack. We don’t know what happened to her…. We can’t find her.” _True._

“You need to come with me to the Fire Nation, the rest of us are gathering and trying to find out what happened.” _True._

In the beginning, she is eager to help. This is her friend, and she’s probably out there waiting for them to find her. Toph can also totally hold it over Katara when she has to rescue her like a damsel in distress. Besides, she can’t sit around in the palace waiting for good news. Zuko isn’t allowed to go out there, but there is nothing stopping her. Toph volunteers her services without a question. She will be the investigative bureau’s lie detector; she is the only person in the world with this skill. They will get to the bottom of this in no time. 

They don’t. 

“She was purifying the water when all of a sudden she was struck by an arrow.” _True._

“No, it was two arrows!” _True_. 

“Arrows? I’m not sure… I didn’t really see anything. It looked like she just fell over… maybe she just tripped or something?” _True._

“One minute she was there and the next minute she wasn’t!” _True._

“She had to have been there! I even found the necklace she was wearing in the water!” _True._

“It was the strangest thing. She got shot and then before my very own eyes she disappeared. She just vanished into thin air.” _True_. 

“Vanished? Her body? You think you’re all so mighty bowing down to the usurper, but then you trust gossip from the rabble. She didn’t disappear. One of the higher-ups brought the body back to the headquarters. Saw it with my very own eyes. Blue robes and everything.” _True._

“Yeah, I saw the corpse, too. We had a feast to celebrate killing one of the war heroes.” _True._

“It wasn’t the waterbender. It was some random peasant girl he came across on the way back.” _True._

“Where is the waterbender? Beats me, probably only the Spirits know now.” _True_. 

“I don’t know where she is! I shot her twice, she fell back in the water, and then she was gone! I blinked and she was gone!” _True._

“Why? Why did I do it? Because it was easy. You all think you’re so great, but she went down without a fight, that pathetic bi—” 

Toph is given the day off after she pummels the perpetrator through the wall. 

Eventually, they find all the hideouts and headquarters of the New Ozai Society. They find the leaders, their secret stash of funds and a list of their supporters. They find the body of the farmer girl the assassin happened across during his escape, and return her to her family for a proper burial. 

They never find Katara. 

In the past, Toph treated truth-seeing like a fun party trick; a way she could make her friends squirm. Now? She’s tired. She doesn’t want to know that Zuko is lying when he agrees that it wasn’t his fault. She doesn’t want to know that Sokka thinks Katara being alive is an unlikely possibility. She doesn’t want to know that Suki has doubts when she suggests that Katara’s reported injuries would have resulted in a quick death. 

She doesn’t want to see what people believe to be the truth anymore. 

Some semblance of closure finally comes to the group when Aang returns from his journey to the Spirit World. 

“Sokka was right. She’s with Yue,” he states, “She’s a spirit now… the Painted Lady.” _True_. 

Toph doesn’t know how to react to that statement. She knows Aang believes what he said to be the truth, but a part of Toph wants to scream. _Stop using the flowery language, Twinkletoes! With Yue, with the Spirits, is a Spirit, dead; they’re all the fucking same! It doesn’t matter if she’s having a grand ole time with the Moon! It doesn’t matter if she’s some type of Spirit now! She’s gone! She’s not coming back!_

For once in her life, Toph Beifong doesn’t know what to say, so she says nothing. She hugs the others, visits the South Pole for the first time, and offers a shoulder to cry on. However, the tears don’t come for her. Not yet, at least. Maybe she’s tougher than she thought. Maybe that’s a lie. Maybe she’s just in denial. 

Maybe it’s real, though. Maybe Katara really is gone forever. Letting the entire world mourn her doesn’t seem in character for Miss I-Will-Never-Ever-Turn-My-Back-on-People-Who-Need-Me. Because Toph really needs her right now, and she’s still nowhere to be found. 

___

At first Toph doesn’t talk about it. She says her bit at the South Pole, and then Katara and all things relating to Katara are locked away, never to be prodded again. She’s a busy person, being the inventor of metalbending and all, and she doesn’t need to rehash her feelings over and over again for any curious passerby. Besides, isn’t this what Katara would want? For them to get on with their lives? 

So with the resolve of a saber-tooth moose lion, Toph decides to “get on with her life” and resume her position as the Greatest Earthbender in the World. 

Her plan quickly falls to shambles when she attends a play with her metalbending students as a reward for their progress in the discipline. She had thought the night out would provide her with some content to tease the rest of the gang about during their upcoming Ember Island trip. Oh, how wrong she was. Toph at twelve would have found the play hilarious, but Toph in her twenties, with a better understanding of the world, was furious. She was not sure how they managed it, but somehow a post-war Earth Kingdom production managed to treat Katara with less dignity than Fire Nation war propaganda.

Reduced to the ‘Water Tribe Girl,’ the role blatantly reflecting Katara was egregious in every manner. Throughout the play, when Water Tribe Girl wasn’t crying out for someone to save her, she was seducing the two main protagonists —the Fire Lord and the Avatar— thus causing a rift in their friendship. After a brutal onscreen death where a local hunter mistook her for game and accidentally shot her, the Fire Lord and Avatar rejoiced, for they were finally free of her wicked temptations. 

Despite using the Beifong name to promptly end the playwright’s career, she soon learned the production was not particularly unique. Once she started looking, there was a plethora of plays, stories, artwork, and rumors that seemed to thrive off of smearing Katara’s name. The better ones would portray her as the supportive love interest, the Avatar’s Girl, the cheerleader that had no skills of her own to offer. In the worst, she was an immoral temptress threatening to wreck the balance of the world, or a parable for children to learn about the dangers of not planning ahead. 

Toph had fucking had it the day she overheard her students using “tearbend” to mock one another. She couldn’t track down the creators of every shit opinion and piece of art, but she could directly influence the opinions of the people around her. She was never going to give them a rendition of her eulogy all those years ago nor was she going to let them see all the precious moments they shared, but she could tell them the truth. A version of the truth, anyway. 

“Katara was the only person in the world that could claim to be a Master of all three waterbending styles: Northern, Southern, and Foggy Swamp.” 

“Katara successfully traversed the Si Wong Desert with only a single pouch of water.” 

“Katara was such a badass in the North that they decided to start training women in martial waterbending.”

“At the age of fourteen, Katara led a prison uprising that freed hundreds of earthbenders.”

“During Sozin’s Comet, Katara defeated Princess Azula _and_ saved Fire Lord Zuko’s life in under three minutes.” 

“Using only scrolls and secondhand accounts, Katara successfully revitalized Southern Waterbending.” 

It got easier for Toph to talk about her as time went on. She was neither an artist nor a poet, but she could do this. She could get it into her pupils’ heads that while she may be the Greatest Earthbender in the World, Katara was the Greatest Waterbender, and that they better not forget it. The statue she had metalbent of them together that stood outside in the school’s courtyard was sure to remind them if they slipped for even a moment. 

___

For the majority of her life, Toph spent her summers the same way. Once the students were out on their summer break, she would first visit the Fire Nation, then Kyoshi Island, followed by the Southern Air Temple, and finally the Southern Water Tribe. She would often see her family throughout the year, but it was important to set aside a time where it was guaranteed. It was a tradition, and not even the daunting task of traveling with a newborn could stop her from following it. Toph was extremely grateful, however, once Lin was old enough to be an eager participant. 

It’s only when she’s starting to get up there in decades that she adds a new stop to her route. About a day’s journey by foot from her bending school in Yu Dao, there’s a harbor town situated near a waterfall. It is here that one of the Earth Kingdom’s first shrines dedicated to the Painted Lady was constructed. After tales of a civilian ship avoiding disaster by being guided to the eye of the storm by a veiled woman had spread throughout the Western Coast, the Spirit had boomed in popularity. It was now a common practice before setting sail for people to visit the shrine with offerings to pray for a safe journey. The Painted Lady had come to be seen as the guardian of clear skies and smooth waters in the Western Earth Kingdom. 

Although it was never going to be the same as seeing her in person, Toph had found herself adding the shrine as the last leg of her summer vacation. Once arriving in town, she would use the ingredients she had purchased in the Southern Water Tribe and the knowledge Gran Gran had shared with her decades ago, to prepare a pot of stewed sea prunes. After her hard work, she would carry it with her up the steps to the Painted Lady’s shrine to present as an offering. 

Most people would donate money for the maintenance of the shrine or light incense when praying to the Painted Lady. However, Toph wasn’t begging a Spirit for any favors; she was visiting the dead. Gaoling may no longer be her home, but some of the traditions were still ingrained into her. In the Southern Earth Kingdom, you present your loved ones with food, and Katara’s favorite most definitely was her grandmother’s sea prunes. 

Toph has never encountered the Painted Lady in all of her years visiting the shrine, not that she ever really expected to. However, sometimes after she’s done wiping her eyes, she swears that her aching joints feel a bit lighter. 

“‘Till next year, Sugar Queen,” is how she always concludes her visits. If sometimes she hears a “Thank you” in the wind, then that’s between Katara and her. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The saying mentioned in the excerpt at the beginning is inspired by a Korean one. If you've ever watched a kdrama, then at one point you have most definitely seen a character remark that someone "must have saved the country/nation in their past life." Coming up with an original saying for Toph's excerpt was giving me a headache, so I decided to just twist this existing one. 
> 
> Toph does not become a cop in this au because Toph becoming a cop makes no sense. Toph loves to break rules! Plus, personally investigating Katara's death in this au would have been extremely traumatizing and I think she would avoid similar situations in the future. I could still see this au's Lin ending up as a cop though. 
> 
> Next chapter is The Matriarch~
> 
> This is my [tumblr](https://the-yellowturtle.tumblr.com/) if you guys wanna chat there :)


	3. Interlude: The Matriarch

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Special thanks to [biscuitlevitation](https://archiveofourown.org/users/biscuitlevitation/pseuds/biscuitlevitation) for their encouragement~ 
> 
> The interlude chapters are mainly just going to be conversations between two characters. This chapter is Gran Gran & Toph.

“Are you cold?”

“Not really.” 

“Here, wear this shawl. It’ll warm you right up.”

“Thanks.” 

“Are you busy at the moment, child?”

“No… No, I’m not.” 

“Well, come along then. I’m getting old and I need an assistant for cooking dinner.” 

“Cooking isn’t exactly my strong suit.” 

“Doesn’t matter whether you’re good or not, as long as you follow my instructions.” 

___

“For any respectable pot of stewed sea prunes, you need to have at least four handfuls of sea prunes. Here, hold them, feel their weight. This is the right amount.” 

“They’re squishy.” 

“They are. Now before we add the sea prunes to the pot, we need to start the garlic and wild winter scallions with the salt and pepper.” 

“How much of each?” 

“Here, feel. One head of garlic, peeled and chopped. A handful of wild winter scallions.” 

“This much?” 

“No, no, a bigger handful than that.” 

“Is this good?”

“That’s better. For the salt and pepper, start with at least two pinches of each. We can add more later as we go.” 

“Ok, how do we know when it’s ready for the sea prunes?” 

“Oh, you’ll know.” 

“...”

“No, but really how will we know when it’s ready?” 

“It will start to smell good, child.” 

“Oh.”

“Also: listen. Do you hear that? That’s the sound of happy garlic.” 

“It just sounds like sizzling to me.” 

“It’ll come with time. Now, do you smell that?”

“Yeah! It smells good.”

“It’s ready! Now add in the sea prunes!” 

___

“How is it?”

“It’s… good. It’s really good. It’s a shame I never tried it before when Ka— when someone made it for the group.” 

“...”

“How are you, child?”

“I’m… I’m fine. I’ll be ok.” 

“It is ok to not be fine.” 

“I… I don’t know… Is it bad that I haven’t cried yet?” 

“Sometimes you don’t cry. Sometimes you can’t stop crying. Grief comes in many forms... Sometimes you feel like you have to take care of everyone else that you simply can’t find the time to grieve; you’re already too busy trying to fill the hole that person left…”

“That’s… that’s what she did.”

“Yes, it is… In the Southern Water Tribe, we honor the people we have lost by telling stories of their lives… Can… Can you share a story about her?” 

“Ok… During the war, when we were in Ba Sing Se, we went to this spa together. It was the first time it was only the two of us, and we got all dolled up, but when we were walking back to the house we ran into these two snooty girls from the Upper Ring. They made fun of the way we looked, of course we showed them, sent them right into the river, but it still hurt… what they said. And then Katara… she was the first person to call me pretty and mean it…”

“...”

“Would you like a hug?”

“Yes.”

“Well, come here then.” 

“...”

“You can call me, Gran Gran.” 

“Thank you… Gran Gran.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When I first started brainstorming this fic, Toph & Gran Gran interacting was definitely not something I expected to write. However, this interlude had to happen after I decided that Gran Gran would teach Toph how to make stewed sea prunes for Katara. 
> 
> I based the recipe off of the stewed sea prunes video that the official atla channel released on youtube [[x].](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmUK4MeKHtg&t=48s&ab_channel=Avatar%3ATheLastAirbender)
> 
> I finally finished writing Sokka's chapter, so that will be going up when I'm done editing it~ Now the only chapter left to write is chapter 10~


	4. The Engineer

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Special thanks to [biscuitlevitation](https://archiveofourown.org/users/biscuitlevitation/pseuds/biscuitlevitation) for the beta :3
> 
> This is Sokka's chapter~
> 
> CW: some cussing

**The Surprising Origins of the Squiggle Meme**

Xin Jizhe 

Omashu Times News Reporter 

You’ve seen it. Your mom has seen it. Spirits, even your pet fire-ferret has probably seen it! The latest comparison meme that’s often paired with the caption, “Ink Brush Painting is My Passion” is everywhere! However, the origins of the painting are much more heartfelt than you could have ever imagined. 

The physical copy of the painting is currently hosted in the Caldera City Art Museum as part of the “Heroes of the Hundred Year War” collection. According to the museum’s website, it was painted by Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe as an outline for the paintings that would appear in his picture book about his younger sister, Master Katara, who had been assassinated by extremists in 106 AG. The paintings used in the published copy of the story are also available for viewing in the Caldera City Art Museum. 

(Fun Fact: The official versions were painted by his wife, Suki of Kyoshi Island. Yes! That Suki! The one and only President Suki that fought for Kyoshi Island’s right to self-determination, and became the third president!). 

Anyway, back to the matter at hand! Sokka reportedly decided to publish the picture book about his sister as a reaction to the growing popularity of a woodblock print that depicted Master Katara in her last moments. Sokka wanted the world to remember his sister as she was living, not a romanticized image of her death. 

Try to see this touching meme in real life before the collection ends this spring. 

You might be interested in [The Best Adaptations of the Painted Lady and Blue Spirit Legend](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ&ab_channel=RickAstleyVEVO).

___

When Sokka hears from one of the shaken villagers that after being shot Katara vanished into thin air, he gets an inkling about where she really is. When another local presents the pendant of Katara’s necklace to him, the sinking feeling in his gut tells him that his suspicions may be correct. And when he gazes up at the full moon later that night, he knows for certain. 

Katara is gone. 

He doesn’t need to travel to the Spirit World to know this. It has happened before. Before his very own eyes and between his very own arms. Some people are not destined to rejoin the earth; some are destined to be among the Spirits. He can only hope that she didn’t suffer too much in her last moments; that it was quick. 

When he looks up at the moon, up at Yue, he pleads, “Please take care of her for me.” 

Yue is probably far too busy being a beautiful celestial goddess to listen every time he talks to her, but he thinks she’s listening this time. She has to be. 

___

Sokka was in the Southern Water Tribe on break from his studies in Ba Sing Se when word came that something had happened to Katara in the Fire Nation. Something that had warranted a personal letter from the Fire Lord, and had turned Zuko’s normally pristine penmanship into a barely decipherable mess. Katara was missing. 

Truthfully, at the beginning of the letter Sokka was not worried at all. Zuko had a knack for worrying and exaggerating, and Sokka was certain that Katara would be back from wherever she had wandered off to before he could even set sail for the Fire Nation. Katara had probably found some wayward child or koala-sheep that needed assistance along the way, and she was so caught up in being benevolent that she forgot to hawk Zuko. 

But then his dad and him had gotten to the part of the letter that informed them eyewitnesses were claiming that Katara had been attacked. That someone had shot her with an arrow. That they had watched her be struck, fall back into the river, and never rise again. That Katara was missing. That Katara might be dead. 

It took more than one person to restrain him from immediately running off to the Fire Nation. Not that dad was any help, frozen, rereading the words over and over and over again. _Katara might be dead_. 

When preparing to depart from the Southern Water Tribe, Sokka had promised his family that he would bring Katara home safely. That he would find out what happened. 

He only manages to keep one of his promises. And it’s the one he cared for the least. When his dad and Gran Gran meet him at port, red-eyed and bags heavy, they know with one glance at Sokka’s face. 

“She’s gone,” Gran Gran states, gripping his arm. 

Sokka presses the carved pendant into his father’s hand. “She is.” 

___

At first, it’s easy to pretend. With all the international guests and foreign dignitaries flocking to the Southern Water Tribe to personally pay their respects, it’s easy to slip into the role of being just Sokka. There are people to accommodate and details to smooth over. The South needs a planner, so Sokka becomes the mastermind. 

It becomes a mask he slips on and off. One moment he is only Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe, the next he is Katara’s brother. When it becomes too much, one of their friends is there to comfort him or one of the guests is there to exasperate him. It’s easy at first; ignoring that nothing is ever going to be the same. 

All things must come to an end, however, and the funeral is the same. The world must continue onwards, and gradually all of their friends return to where they are needed. When it’s only Gran Gran, dad, and him left, that's when the cracks begin to show. 

It’s in the way that Gran Gran accidentally burns the sea prunes because she thought someone would be watching them when she was turned away. It’s in the way that dad leaves official correspondence from the Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom off to the side of his desk because he thought someone else would be looking over them. It’s in the way that Sokka reaches into his pocket and is surprised to find a necklace pendant because sometimes he still thinks that she’s somewhere out there wearing it. 

Their family already had cracks, but now they no longer had the glue as well. After their mom passed away, Katara had taken it upon herself to be what everyone had needed. An eight-year old had done everything she possibly could have to fill the gaping hole their mom had left. At twenty-two years old, Sokka still has no idea how she found the strength to do that. But Katara is gone now, and the cracks in their family have transformed into an unmeasurable crevasse.

___

Sokka quickly learns the crevasse encompasses the entire Southern Water Tribe. This becomes abundantly clear one afternoon when three of Katara’s students confront him at the docks. 

Akia, the shortest of the three and a refugee from the Northern Water Tribe, speaks first, “Sokka, we have a request.”

“Sure, what’s up?” he responds, setting down his catch. 

The three young women exchange glances before Aqpik, from one of the interior clans, says, “We were wondering if you would allow us to enter Master Katara’s private study.” 

Sokka freezes. No one in their family has been in there since her passing. “Why would you need to do that?”

“Spring is coming, and that means so are the seasonal waterbending students. We need to be prepared for when they arrive, and Master Katara always kept the lesson plans and personal scrolls in her study,” Akia pleads. 

He begins to respond before he’s abruptly cut off by Mirae, a mixed waterbender of Water and Earth descent. “Master Katara fought long and hard to revitalize Southern bending, we can’t let it die with her. We were all so close to being declared masters, and we can continue the tradition in her stead. We need to do this.” 

Meeting her determined gaze, Sokka knows immediately that this conversation was only for propriety’s sake; Mirae would most definitely break in if his answer was anything but the one she wanted. It’s a look he had seen so many times on Katara’s very own face. He had been so caught up in remembering Katara as his sister that he had forgotten that she was so much more than that to the South. She was the one who had painstakingly travelled the world to bring back the South’s stolen heritage, and Sokka would never be able to live with himself if he was part of the reason her efforts became in vain. 

“Of course, you can,” he replies, “But first there’s something I need to do.” 

___

In the Southern Water Tribe, when someone passes away you offer them to the sea along with an assortment of their earthly possessions. The objects that would feel wrong for any other to use are submerged with them, and the objects that would be a shame to waste are passed on to those who need it most. There is no fear surrounding the usage of things the deceased have touched; to use one of their belongings is to honor their memory. 

This ceremony is an essential step in the mourning process of the South, but the most important by far is the telling of stories. For it is through stories that a person’s life is truly seen and celebrated. It is through stories that they are remembered and may continue to be remembered generations after they are gone. 

Sokka has a feeling that the stories about Katara will be told for so long it will become impossible to discern myth from truth. A part of him is satisfied knowing that others will appreciate the person she was long after he is gone, however, they will never have the privilege of actually _knowing_ Katara. Future generations will hear about the Hundred Year War, the Avatar, and the restoration of Southern Bending, but they will never learn about the time she broke her wrist penguin sledding _as an adult_. They will remember Master Katara of the Southern Water Tribe, but they won’t remember Katara. 

No, remembering Katara is up to them. It’s up to Sokka and Gran Gran and dad and the rest of the gang to remember who she was. This is why the night after his conversation with the waterbenders, Sokka brings Gran Gran and dad with him to go through Katara’s study. Katara may have been the glue of the family, but this does not mean that Sokka can’t be the rope. 

At first, it’s quiet as they work together to sort through the rest of her belongings. Unsurprisingly, she had meticulously organized everything. The waterbending scrolls are divided by style and skill level, the letters by country of origin and sender, even the hanging art is suspended according to the changing of the seasons. Sokka feels antsy just looking at how neat it is. 

Dad is the one to break the silence. “She’s always been like this,” he comments, looking around the room, “Even as a toddler, she was extremely insistent on things being returned to their proper place.” 

Gran Gran chuckles. “I wouldn’t say _always_ , Hakoda. She could get pretty messy at times.”

“I’m gonna have to disagree, Gran Gran. Even as kids, Katara would only get messy if she had a statement to make. Didn’t like the way I folded my clothes? Then she would throw them about. Didn’t want to go to bed? Then she would refuse to get washed.” 

“Ahhh bath time, that was always such an adventure with you two,” Dad smiles. 

Sokka scoffs, “I don’t know what you’re talking about, I was the best bather! Katara was the one who would get water all over the place” 

“Sokka,” Gran Gran grins, patting his shoulder, “You would run around naked and we would have to catch you. _In Winter_. Thank the Spirits, you never attempted to go outside.” 

The conversation goes on like this for hours; the waterbending scrolls forgotten. They laugh and cry and tease and debate. They remember. 

When the embers are low and the sun is on the horizon again, Sokka reaches into his pocket and freezes. The pendant. 

He hesitates before slowly pulling it out and tracing the carved waves with his finger. “Gran Gran? Dad? Do you think we should have submerged this, too?” 

It was often a thin line between deciding what objects were inseparable from the deceased, and what objects the living could not bear to part from. When the time had come to select the belongings for Katara’s funeral, Sokka had found himself unwilling to hand over the necklace. There was no object more symbolic of who Katara was as a person, Sokka was well aware of that. However, for as long as he could remember, Katara had always been there. Even when they were far apart with her scouring the world for Southern waterbending scrolls and him in Ba Sing Se furthering his engineering studies, they had written constantly and made frequent trips to visit each other. 

Katara was his sister; she would always be his sister. He knows she is gone, probably gallivanting about the Spirit World with Yue and telling Spirits how to do their jobs, but he needs to hold onto this piece of her. Just for a little bit. 

“No,” Gran Gran finally answers, “We shouldn’t have.” Sokka meets her unwavering gaze. “That necklace has always been worn by women with the conviction to do what was right. Surely, Katara will not be the last.” 

___

_Gran Gran_ , Sokka thinks to himself as he watches his daughter from afar flip one of the Northern boys over her shoulder, _really was always right._ Some parents would probably be concerned that their child is getting into fights during the Winter Solstice celebration, but if Sokka may say so himself, he and Suki are excellent parents and that boy most definitely deserved it. 

Sokka’s instincts are proven to be correct when Senna comes to join him and Suki where they are waiting to watch the waterbending performance.

“That was a good throw, sweety. Great form,” Suki compliments, hugging their daughter to her side. 

Senna huffs at the reminder of the event and promptly launches into what happened. “Those little tiger-seal shit eaters were saying Yuki shouldn’t have been given the main role because apparently it’s _only for girls_ ,” she rolls her eyes, “So I informed them that eating snow is only for narrow-minded, sexist boys, those fucking iceholes.” 

Being interested in architecture and mathematics, people often assume that Senna mostly takes after him in looks and personality. But the focus, fighting and cussing? That was all Suki. And the ferociousness for justice? That was most definitely from Katara. 

He likes to think that she would be immensely proud of his daughter, the new owner of her necklace, for never backing down. Sokka certainly was. He’s sure that she would also be overjoyed to know that the storybending performances she had revived were flourishing and that her nephew had worked his butt off to earn one of the main roles. Funnily enough, the role of Katara. 

Yuki had been nervous, going over his routine again and again these past few days to make sure it was perfect. He had only managed to calm down when Suki had given him her protective amulet for good luck, and Sokka had reassured him that Aunt Katara would be honored by his performance no matter what. 

When the storybending officially begins, Sokka can only beam with pride as he watches his son flawlessly reenact the freeing of the earthbenders. Yuki has certainly come a long way from accidentally splashing his sister to manipulating a stream of water to look like coal soaring through the air. He wishes Katara was alive to see it, but a part of him gets the feeling that she knows.

Sokka is aware that the Painted Lady is out there somewhere running around trying to help those in need, but on nights like this when the moon is bright and the sky is full of lights, he gets this _feeling_. Even if he can no longer meet her, sometimes it feels like she’s still there. 

So when the performance is over, and the kids are finally off to bed, he takes a moment to gaze up at the full moon. “I’m happy, I hope you are, too.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> On Sokka being The Engineer: Personally, I see Sokka studying more and becoming an inventor of some sorts. I know quite a few people headcanon him as becoming the Chief of the Southern Water Tribe, but I think he would be happier inventing and fixing things. Plus, it's not really clear in canon if the title of Chief in the South is something that is passed down from father to son. 
> 
> Yes, I did go onto buzzfeed's website and look at some of their articles before writing that intro lololol. 
> 
> On President Suki: Because why not??????? I see the Earth Kingdom breaking up into multiple countries after the war, and I think Kyoshi Island would be one of the first to declare their independence. 
> 
> (BTW, the "Best Adaptations of the Painted Lady and Blue Spirit Legend" link actually works!)
> 
> The Names of the Waterbenders:  
> -Akia is Inuktut for the other side (because she's from the NWT). I also imagine she came to the SWT as a refugee with her girlfriend to escape the North's BS.  
> -Aqpik is Inuktut for cloudberry. My headcanon is that her clan is mixed with Air Nomads & that they like to make cloudberry fruit pies.  
> -Mirae is a Korean name that means future. Her grandparents fled the SWT when the raids began and settled in the Southern Earth Kingdom. I named her after the Black Korean American rapper-singer, Yoon Mirae. She's famous in South Korea for her song [Black Happiness](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DK-MPh7vKk&ab_channel=1theK%28%EC%9B%90%EB%8D%94%EC%BC%80%EC%9D%B4%29) that talks about her struggles as someone who is mixed. 
> 
> This is the [Inuktut](https://tusaalanga.ca/index.php/node/2502) website I used for my research. They have lessons and a dictionary on there. 
> 
> The Names of the Twins:  
> -Senna has multiple meanings. According to my Yemeni friend, it's an Arabic name that means splendor. In Japanese, there are many different meanings depending on which kanji you use to write it. For this fic, Senna's name is written as 扇菜. What's great about these kanji is that the first one 扇 means folding fan which would be a reference to her Kyoshi heritage. The second character 菜 means greens/vegetables, but in Chinese it also means cuisine. For example, 中国菜 is Chinese food and 川菜 is Sichuan cuisine. Sooo my headcanon is that you could write Kyoshi cuisine using 扇菜, and Sokka naming his daughter after food amuses me.  
> -Yuki is another Japanese name with multiple meanings. It can be written with the kanji for snow, but for this character I imagine his name being written as 勇気 (courageous spirit). I also chose Yuki because it sounded like Suki. 
> 
> The storybending is a plot bunny I have for a Katara & Kanna post-war road trip fic. Basically, Kanna (as the only elder left) makes up a coming-of-age tradition and forces Katara to go on a year long trip with her. 
> 
> Next chapter is The Kyoshi Warrior~


	5. Interlude: The Kyoshi Warrior

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks as always to [biscuitlevitation](https://archiveofourown.org/users/biscuitlevitation/pseuds/biscuitlevitation) :3
> 
> The conversation in this chapter is between Katara and Suki~ 
> 
> CW: underage drinking (but katara is 16 and suki is 18 when this is happening, so it really depends on where you're from)

“Y’know what we should do?”

“Don’t know. What should we do, Suki?”

“Make a wish.”

“I wish you made more sense when you were drunk.”

“No, no, no, not that type of wish, Katara. There’s a Kyoshi Island tradition.”

“Oh? Tell me more, Suki.”

“You write a wish on a sheet of paper and put it inside this lil’ silk bag. If your wish comes true after a certain amount of time, then you can give it to someone to use as a good luck charm or as a protective amulet.” 

“Suki.”

“Yeah?”

“That sounds awesome. Let’s do it.”

___

“I’m not sober enough to be writing this small with an ink brush.”

“Katara, how much are you writing that you need to write small? Lemme see.”

“It’s a secret, Suki! You can’t see my wish, yet.” 

“Spirits, you don’t need to write an essay! Just write a goal you can see yourself accomplishing within a year or so!”

“You didn’t say it needed to be a goal!” 

“I forgot to mention it! Some traditions are best conveyed without alcohol!” 

“Ok, ok, I understand, Suki. So it should be a goal?”

“Yeah, something that you can actively try to accomplish in a year or so. That’s usually how long people wait before checking to see if their wish came true.”

“Hmmm, but a year isn’t that long… could we wait a bit longer?”

“Sure… Maybe like five years? Is that ok?”

“Perfect.”

___

“Fuck, I wrote the character for chi wrong.”

“Suki… that’s like only four strokes.” 

“I know… I think I need some water.”

“...”

“Not like that! It’s in my eye!”

“Hahahaha, Suki, it’s water. It can get in your eyes.”

“Oh.”

“We’re so drunk.” 

“ _You_ are the one that’s drunk, Miss Waterbend-Water-Into-My Drunk-Friend’s-Eyes.”

“Hah, _you_ just said you were drunk, Miss I’m-Not-Drunk.”

“Shit, we need to go to bed.” 

“Yessss, bed would be nice. Did you finish your wish?” 

“Yup, I’m done. Let’s hang them up on the porch.”

“Can’t they get rained on out there?”

“It’s only for the first three days, then you can bring them inside for the rest of the time.” 

“Ok… Suki, what happens if the wish doesn’t come true? Is it bad luck?”

“Don’t worry, Katara. If it doesn’t come true, then you just burn it. You can start again and make a whole new wish.” 

___

It’s only after returning from the funeral in the Southern Water Tribe that Suki looks up to the beam over her home’s entrance and registers the wishes hung there. The ones that have now been hanging there for at least five years. 

The navy one is hers, and she can’t stop herself from snorting at the goal inside. “I will master chi-blocking,” she had written. They really must have been drunk when they wrote these because her wish became true less than a year after writing it. She should have chosen something more grand and worthy of the five year duration. 

Nonetheless, the wish came true, so she pockets it to later give to one of her fellow Kyoshi Warriors. No need to let a protective amulet go to waste just because the wish wasn’t the best. 

Suki stares at the light blue bag for a few minutes before finally mustering up the strength to take it down, pull open the drawstrings, and unroll the wish inside. 

In her familiar loopy script, Katara had written: “I will make mom’s sacrifice worth it.” 

Suki loses it. She wants nothing more than to grab a hold of her and give her a good shaking.

_How could you think that? You didn’t have to do anything to make yourself worthy of your mom’s sacrifice! You didn’t have to prove anything! You already give too much of yourself to others! Start putting yourself first for once in your life! You better not still think that after five fucking years!_

But Suki couldn’t give her a good talking to nor could she send a strongly worded hawk. She couldn’t even give that idiot a hug anymore. 

There’s nothing she can do anymore, so she ties the amulet to the end of her iron fans, and just cries. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Does this chapter warrant a Katara & Suki tag? I initially didn't tag that relationship because Suki doesn't get her own long chapter like the other characters. 
> 
> The amulet that Suki gave to Yuki for good luck in the last chapter is the one from this chapter. 
> 
> The appearance of the protective amulets is inspired by omamori. This is a good intro to the different types you can buy at shrines in Japan [[x]](https://www.tokyoweekender.com/2015/05/japanese-lucky-charms-the-guide-to-omamori/). For clarification, you do not write your own wishes and put them inside the little pouches; this is something I made up. 
> 
> On Katara's wish: Although, Katara has confronted her trauma, I don't think it would ever completely leave her. I think she would always carry a bit of that survivor's guilt with her. We know that Katara never turns her back on people who need her, but part of me has always wondered if her trauma played a part in this. Does Katara feel like she has to save others in order to make up for the sacrifice her mom made? Or does she simply want to emulate the selfless behavior of her mom? Or is that just who Katara is? 
> 
> I've decided that I'm going to post Monday-Wednesday-Friday until the whole story is finished. The next chapter is The Fire Lord :)
> 
> Feel free to leave kudos and a comment~ I would love to hear what you guys think :)


	6. The Fire Lord

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you as always to [biscuitlevitation](https://archiveofourown.org/users/biscuitlevitation/pseuds/biscuitlevitation) :)

Reflective of the Reconstruction Period’s changing values, Fire Nation plays and stories originating from this time often depicted protagonists as virtuous and noble. Even the most popular romances of the period featured characters who were willing to sacrifice their chance at true love for the sake of others. This is clearly seen in Mou Ren’s  _ Love Amongst the Spirits _ : 

FIRE LORD. (Pleadingly, on his knees) Please tell me that it is not our love that has led to your current state! That the time we shared has made you unable to pass on to the next life! 

PAINTED LADY. (Resting a hand on his shoulder) I loved you, but it is not my attachment to you nor any other man that has led me to this position. I simply cannot sit by while there is still the opportunity to help one more person, one more individual. Only when there is peace will I be able to fully detach myself from humanity. 

- _ Culturally Significant Works of the Reconstruction Period _

___

Zuko gets to say goodbye. 

In fact, it’s the last thing he says to Katara before her passing. 

The morning after they fought about how to best resolve the water pollution problem, he had found her getting ready to set sail from the docks. She had won. She would be going ahead of the rest of the relief despite his concern over reports of the New Ozai Society potentially being in the area. However, Zuko knew it was futile to get her to stop once Katara had even the slightest suggestion that there were people out there who needed her. That’s just who Katara was. 

And so she had smiled at him and said goodbye, and he had replied the same and given her a hug. And that was it. That was the last time Zuko saw or heard from Katara. 

___

The officials and citizens would talk about it sometimes. About how they thought it was obvious that he was in love with Katara. About how they spent too much time together to simply be friends, how Zuko was too considerate of her opinions for it to simply be platonic affection. 

The hearsay used to always make him scoff; caring for his best friend did not make him in love with her. Zuko had read all of the great romances and devoured the scripts of all the plays as a child (and admittedly re-devoured them as an adult looking for some stress relief). Zuko had read about love and he had heard Sokka go on about it in length; Zuko knew what love was supposed to feel like, and what he felt with Katara was nothing like it. When he was with her, he did not get sweaty palms, his face did not flush a scarlet red and his heart did not feel like it was going to escape from his chest. With Katara he was at peace, not agonizing over his words and yearning for her lips. 

So Zuko had thought it was a ridiculous notion for him to be in love with Katara. After all, he was far too busy with his duties as Fire Lord to be falling in love with his best friend. Besides, if he was afflicted with eros, then surely he would have noticed the symptoms. 

After her death, Zuko doesn’t think about the great romance his people think they shared. He orders the construction of the Southern Waterbenders Memorial because it is the right thing to do. He builds the Katara Public Park because his citizens deserve to have more public spaces and Katara always did like the flora of the Fire Nation. He funds more shrines and temples in honor of the Painted Lady because her popularity among the people has exploded in the post-war period. Depictions of the Painted Lady in these places of worship always look like Katara because it’s based on firsthand accounts of the Spirit, and because Zuko heard the truth from Aang. 

He orders the installation of a Painted Lady shrine in the royal palace because sometimes he likes to believe that there’s the possibility she can hear him when he talks to her in the middle of the night. 

Zuko is aware that his actions further encourage the rumors of his tragic love affair with Katara. He’s seen the posters for the blatant adaptations, and accidentally attended the showings of the ones with more subtle advertising. Zuko knows that everyone thinks he was madly in love with her, but he wasn’t. He was not in love with her. He would have known. And she certainly was never in love with him. 

___

Eventually he finds a semblance of happiness in his life as Fire Lord. The New Ozai Society is demolished and similar groups become insignificant threats that are easy to handle. The economy begins to pick up again, and international trade flourishes. The Four Nations are in a relative state of peace when he meets his future wife. 

Tian is a non-bender from one of the surviving Air Nomad enclaves that hid themselves in the Earth Kingdom’s far south. A proponent for the equality of benders and non-benders, the first time he meets her she informs him that he needs to change the Fire Nation’s rules of succession to allow a non-bender unless he wants to alienate the non-bending population. She’s right, so he finds himself proposing the change when he returns to court. 

Over the years, he finds himself seeking out her company more and more at peace summits. Tian is passionate and empathetic and just cares so much. He falls in love with her, and somehow she ends up feeling the same. 

They have one child together, Izumi. She grows up loved and immersed in both of her parent’s cultures. Tian teaches her chi-blocking and frequently takes her out on shirshu rides. Zuko meditates with her every morning and performs bedtime stories —with the voices!— every night. In a way, Tian’s first words to him end up being prophetic when their non-bending daughter is officially declared the heir to the Fire Nation. 

He loves both of them, but it is this love and decades more of lifetime experience that makes him realize that perhaps the rumours had been right all those years ago. That he had been in love with her then. That maybe a part of him would always love her. 

Katara did not make his heart race nor did she make him stumble over his words, no, when he was with her he felt safe. Accepted. Loved. 

Maybe his true feelings had and always will be seared onto his chest. 

___

When the palace doctors declare that his granddaughter is unlikely to make it through the week, he steals her away in the middle of the night and brings her to the royal family’s private gardens. He brings the baby girl to the Painted Lady shrine by the lake he had commissioned all those years ago. 

Zuko has never personally encountered the Painted Lady, but he has heard the tales from his citizens, the ones of travelers from abroad, and from his own friends. When the Painted Lady is not busy influencing the weather to attack polluting bodies, she will most often be sighted healing the sick. Zuko knows that a Spirit has a limited influence on the human realm, but just this once Zuko prays for a miracle that she will hear his call. 

He cannot bear to watch his daughter lose her own child. 

Holding his granddaughter in his arms, he gets on his weary knees to bow before the lake and beg. “Please help her. Please.” 

“I need to be able to see her to do that,” whispers a woman. 

Zuko jolts up to find a veiled figure floating on the lake before him: the Painted Lady. 

Words don’t come to him, so he simply follows her instructions and presents the bundled up child to the Spirit. The Painted Lady is silent as she reaches out to smooth the black tufts of hair on his granddaughter’s head, soon after a blue glow emits from her hand. 

When the Painted Lady is presumably finished, she steps back and the child stirs for a moment in her sleep. The movement brings tears to his eyes as he takes in the improved complexion of her chubby cheeks. 

To his surprise, she’s still standing on the lake when he looks up. He can’t make out her face from beneath the hat, but he would recognize her necklace anywhere. It really was her. She was not reborn among humans, but made a guardian of them. 

“Katara,” he gasps, causing the Painted Lady to tilt her head, surely confused about why a human was directly calling her personal name. “Her name is Katara,” he clarifies, holding his granddaughter to his chest. 

Zuko had been surprised when Izumi informed him what she was naming her second born. It was no mystery when she named her eldest after Uncle Iroh; they had been fairly close when he was still alive. However, Izumi never had the pleasure of meeting Katara, and had only heard about her when Zuko could bring himself to share the memories he had of their short time together. 

“I want my daughter to be the type of person who never turns away from the needs of others,” Izumi had explained, “Surely the name of the woman who helped save the world is fitting.” 

So when Zuko has the spirit of the woman he had loved in front of him, he has to let her know in some way. She may be revered as the Painted Lady, but there were still those who knew and loved her as Katara. Long before she took up the position of Spirit, she was already saving others. 

“Her name is Katara,” Zuko repeats. 

The Painted Lady slowly glides forward, only stopping when he can make out her cerulean blue eyes. He can barely breath as she reaches up to rest her palm on his left cheek. “Thank you, Zuko,” she smiles. 

He can’t stop the tears that rush down his face. “I think I’m the one who should be thanking you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Zuko kinda has some aro vibes in this chapter because I, an aro, wrote it. I love reading romance, but as to how it actually works I'm completely lost. 
> 
> On the excerpt: When I first started thinking about this AU, I had the idea of Katara being assassinated and then Zuko trying to look for her. Originally, Zuko was going to be worried that he was the reason that she could not pass on, and Katara was just going to be like 'I did not stay for a man; I stayed because I want to help others.' The plot obviously did not go in this direction, so I decided to use the idea in the play excerpt instead.
> 
> On Tian:   
> -The character for her name is 天 which can mean sky/heaven.   
> -Jun is her cousin, but they had a bit of an age gap so they're not that close. However, Jun is still invited to the wedding and Zuko is just like Jun?!?!?!?  
> -Air Nomads survived. In my opinion, book three or the comics should have introduced the Air Nomads into the plot. 
> 
> I feel like there was more I wanted to say in this A/N, but I'm drawing a blank lol. 
> 
> Thanks for all the kudos, bookmarks and comments! Please let me know what you think~
> 
> Next chapter is The Activist.


	7. Interlude: The Activist

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A brief conversation between Zuko and his wife, Tian. 
> 
> This is the shortest chapter!
> 
> CW: sexism & mentions of Katara slander

“I actually met her once.” 

“Who?” 

“Katara.” 

“How did you meet?”

“It was after the war, and she was passing through my village. She stopped to help heal my grandmother’s hip after she fell.” 

“That sounds like something she would do.”

“I didn’t realize it was her at first… You see Katara was not talked about kindly in the village. After the breakup, people often called her the Water Tribe whore or just a crazy bitch for dumping the Avatar. They didn’t even use her name, I’m not even sure if they actually knew it… so in my head she was just the whore, the slut, the bitch… I just listened to everyone calling her that, a perfect stranger, and I just let them. I didn’t correct them.”

“...”

“So she just passed through one day and healed grandmother, and I remember asking her what her name was… When she said Katara, I felt so ashamed of myself.”

“Did you say anything?”

“No, not really. I just thanked her and gave her some egg tarts for the road.” 

“Oh.” 

“...”

“...”

“I can see why you loved her. She was a good person.” 

“She was…” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> On the Katara slander: This was briefly touched upon in Toph's chapter, but women are often treated poorly by history. They're often reduced to their relationships, and people will credit the men in their lives for their accomplishments. I have nothing against Aang, but I think if Kataang ever broke up, then Katara would face a lot of criticism from the global community. I think this would only be worsened by the fact that Aang never really respected Katara as his teacher in canon, she was always just the girl he liked and thought he would be with forever. So from an outsider perspective, you have Aang (Avatar, Savior of the World) versus his ex-girlfriend (from the Water Tribes, she supposedly healed the avatar during the war?????). Unfortunately, I think Katara's global image would be ruined post-breakup. Just look at any famous break-up, most of the time people will blame it on the woman. 
> 
> Next chapter will be The Avatar~ I'll probably be posting it on Tuesday :)


	8. The Avatar

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Special thanks to [biscuitlevitation](https://archiveofourown.org/users/biscuitlevitation/pseuds/biscuitlevitation) :)
> 
> I would like to point out that this fic is tagged 'Not Canon Compliant - The Legend of Korra' for a reason. There are so many things I don't like about LoK, but I don't have the energy to write a fic fixing all of it, so have this chapter that references some of the things I would change lol. 
> 
> You don't need to have watched LoK in order to understand this chapter. All you need to know is that Korra is the next Avatar.

Despite initially struggling with the spiritual aspect of her duties, Avatar Korra would come to be regarded as one of the Avatars most proficient in handling matters of the Spirit World. During the industrial revolution, she successfully guided nations on how to develop without upsetting the Spirits nor the delicate balance of local ecosystems. When asked by a reporter how she managed to find out what the Spirits wanted, she famously replied that, “The self-elected rep of the Spirits tends to just give me updates. If I haven’t had contact from them in a while, then I can usually find them by following the trail of decimated private property.” 

-Avatars of the Later Four Nations Period

___

  
  


Growing up in the Southern Water Tribe, it’s nearly impossible not to hear about Master Katara. Waterbending Master of the Avatar and Savior of Southern Bending, Master Katara is a local legend. Every solstice, the waterbenders vie for the honor of portraying Katara in the storytelling performances. The breaking of the iceberg, the liberation of the earthbenders, the defeat of Princess Azula and the rediscovery of Southern Bending are the most popular of her stories, and at least one of them is featured every solstice. 

If for some reason a Southerner never attends their own festivals, then the gargantuan statue of Master Katara outside of the bending grounds is quite difficult to miss. Gifted by the Earth Kingdom, Southern Waterbenders swear that rubbing the statue’s feet is good luck for mastery examinations. 

All Southerners grow up hearing about Master Katara, but when Avatar Korra meets her for the first time she fails to recognize her. 

You see, the first time Korra successfully enters the Spirit World, it is through her dreams as a young girl still unaware that one day she will have a heavy burden to carry on her shoulders. 

The young Avatar does not know why she is stuck in a seemingly endless swamp, and it is when she begins to cry out for her parents that a veiled figure appears before her. 

“Are you lost?” the woman asks the girl.

“Yes,” Korra replies, rubbing at her wet eyes, “Who are you?” 

Korra has never seen a woman that looks like her before. The woman’s skin is a similar shade to her own, but she has stripes of blue up and down her arms. Her ornate robes are a pristine white with swirling accents of black. She wears a conical hat paired with a veil that partially obscures her face, but Korra can still make out bright blue eyes, a crescent drawn on her forehead, and some sort of necklace. 

“I’m the Painted Lady,” the woman responds, “And you?”

“I’m Korra!” she shouts before offering her arm for a traditional Water Tribe greeting like she’s seen her parents do so often. To her delight, the Painted Lady accepts and clasps the girl’s forearm. 

“Are you lost, Korra?” 

“I think I am… I don’t know how I got here.”

The Painted Lady kneels down, and smoothes the young girl’s hair. “Hmm, that’s quite the predicament. Do you want me to show you the way back?” 

“You can do that? You know the way back?” 

“Of course I do,” the Painted Lady responds as she pushes the veil away from her face. “Do you know what this is?” she asks, gesturing to the pendant of her necklace. 

Korra’s face brightens at the familiar carving and juts out her wrist to show off the necklace her mom had fashioned into a bracelet for her. “I have one, too!” 

“Only the bravest of girls are allowed to wear it, did you know that?”

The young Avatar nods. 

“But sometimes even the bravest of girls get a bit scared. When that happens, all you need to do is rub the pendant and slowly the scary stuff won’t seem that bad anymore,” the Painted Lady explains as she guides Korra’s hand to the makeshift bracelet. “Now close your eyes.” 

She closes them. 

“We’ll meet again,” the Painted Lady murmurs. 

When Korra opens her eyes, she’s once again in her room, and the events of her dream slowly seep from the young girl’s mind. However, in the days that follow she can’t seem to keep her hands from tracing the waves on her bracelet; the action brings a sense of comfort. Only her Gramp Gramp appears to pick up on the new habit when he comes to visit for the Winter Solstice festival. 

All Southerners grow up hearing about Master Katara, but Korra grows up hearing about Great Aunt Katara. 

She grows up hearing about a girl’s indignation towards her brother’s sexism being so strong that it set off the chain of events that ended the Hundred Year War, and about her willingness to sacrifice her personal well-being in order to help others. However, even more so, sometimes her Gramp Gramp would regale her with tales of Great Aunt Katara that weren’t glorious enough to make it into the stories, plays, history books and art. Sometimes he would simply make an offhand comment about how Great Aunt Katara used to scrunch up her nose just like Korra and to be careful ‘cause it might get stuck like that. 

So when Gramp Gramp observes her newfound habit of fidgeting with her bracelet, and comments that Great Aunt Katara used to do the same thing to comfort herself, something clicks in her head. 

It won’t be until years later when she’s a young adult and fully realized Avatar that Korra comes across the Painted Lady again. She finds her in the aftermath of a storm that has ruined a Yu Dao manufacturing plant. Most people would fear Spirits that could accomplish such feats, but if there is anything that Korra has learned about Great Aunt Katara through family stories and legends of the South, it is that she never turns her back on the people who need her. 

So when Avatar Korra makes her presence known, and the Painted Lady turns to meet her gaze, it is not with reverence that she greets the Spirit, but with familiarity. 

“Hello, Aunt Katara.”

She smiles, “Hello, Korra. It’s nice to see you again.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Listen: Katara is an eco-terrorist in life, in death and beyond. 
> 
> Katara having performances about her life and accomplishments was inspired by something [mostly-mundane-atla](https://mostly-mundane-atla.tumblr.com/) said on their tumblr. They are an Inupiaq atla fan that likes to share their insights on atla, especially on the water tribes. I would check them out, if you don't follow them already~
> 
> Originally, Aang was going to get the longer chapter, but I wanted to write about the necklace so this happened. Korra's chapter was actually the first one I wrote, which is probably why it's on the shorter side lol. 
> 
> Changes made to Korra's story: She discovers she's the avatar at the regular age, and she learns the elements by traveling around the world. Also, she's not related to the NWT Chief and the harmonic convergence nonsense never happened. At one point, I thought about having teen Korra talk to Katara, and Katara just being like "the NWT Chief is a fucking liar. there's no christian bs in this universe." Kinda random, but for LoK s2, why did Yue never appear?????? Like she's a friendly spirit??? Why didn't she help Korra in the spirit world or something???????? 
> 
> Anyway!
> 
> You guys will see what Aang is up to in the next chapter: The Boy in the Iceberg.


	9. Interlude: The Boy in the Iceberg

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The conversation is between Aang & Koh the Face Stealer.

“Where is she?”

“There are many that can be referred to as she, Avatar. You’re going to have to be more specific than that.” 

“Where is Katara? Did you take her?” 

“Did I take her? Why, Avatar, did you do something that would warrant me taking her?” 

“No.”

“Hmm, if you’re so certain… Besides, Avatar, you are asking the wrong question.”

“What do you mean?”

“You should be asking where the Painted Lady is, not Katara. I cannot tell you the location of a mortal that no longer exists.” 

“Katara is dead?” 

“I see you still know so little, Avatar. Death is merely an illusion.” 

“...”

“Where is the Painted Lady?”

“She’s here and there, but most often found with the Moon Spirit.” 

“Thank you.”

___

It turns out that Sokka’s intuition was right. 

Aang finds her darting across a lake with Yue at her heels, their laughter reaching his ears from where he observes at a distance under the wisteria trees. He doesn’t make himself known; he simply watches. It doesn’t feel right to interrupt. 

The sorrow living in his chest lightens a bit at the evidence that she appears to be happy, and the relief that he can now inform the others of what happened with certainty. 

He will have the chance to meet her again in this life or the next. 

“Goodbye, Katara.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this is short, but I hope you guys enjoyed the glimpse into what I imagine Aang would be like as an adult. When I first started thinking about Aang in this story, I pictured him directly confronting Katara in the spirit world and Katara comforting him that it would be alright, but that just wasn't fair to Aang's nor Katara's character. He's 18 in this chapter, and I hope that at 18 Aang is no longer seeking validation from Katara (and that Katara is no longer babying him). 
> 
> The next and last chapter is The Painted Lady~ This will probably be uploaded sometime after Christmas because I'm still waiting for my friend to beta it. (BTW, Merry Christmas if you celebrate it!) 
> 
> Because I finished writing the draft for this, I started to work on some drabbles for ZKDD. One of them will take place in this story's universe :)


	10. The Painted Lady

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Special thanks to [biscuitlevitation](https://archiveofourown.org/users/biscuitlevitation/pseuds/biscuitlevitation) for the beta and for all of the support <3
> 
> Here's a [drabble](https://archiveofourown.org/works/28383789) I posted recently for ZKDD that takes place in this au. It's from Izumi's pov. 
> 
> The beginning conversation is between Katara and the former Painted Lady. 
> 
> CW: brief mention of suicide, some discussion of death

“Are you ready?”

“Ready for what?” 

“Ready for the next life?”

“The... next life?”

“Yes.”

“But I’m not finished.”

“Finished with what?”

“Helping them… the villagers… I don’t know if I finished.” 

“You did, the river is clean.”

“Oh, that’s good to hear.”

“So are you ready now?”

“No.” 

“Why not?” 

“There’s still… there’s still more people that I need to help.” 

“Why do you need to help them?” 

“Do you need a reason for helping others? I just… I just want to do whatever I can.”

“Even if that means forfeiting your life?” 

“Yes.”

“...”

“I’m dead, aren’t I?”

“You are.” 

“Oh…”

“Do you regret it? If you never helped them, you would still be alive. You would be able to see your family, your friends, your friend that was almost more… Won’t you miss them?”

“Of course I will miss them. I love them.”

“So do you regret it?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because I had to help those people. More would have died if I didn’t go. I needed to go.” 

“Why you? Why not wait?”

“Because I never, ever, turn my back on people who need me.” 

“I see… Are you ready for the next life now, Katara of the Southern Water Tribe?”

“I don’t know… Will I still be able to help others?” 

“Yes.”

“Then I’m ready.” 

___

  
  


When she opens her eyes, she’s no longer just Katara of the Southern Water Tribe. 

No, now she is the nameless Spirit of a river, now she is the Priestess Jiang of Jang Hui who drowned herself in that very river to escape an unwanted marriage, and now she is the original Painted Lady who was born from Jiang’s sorrow and has watched over the Fire Nation’s outer islands long before they were Fire Nation. Admired by the Spirit for her compassionate heart, her predecessor relinquished her place in the Spirit World, and moved beyond the plane of existence. Blessed with her abilities, position and memory, now Katara is the Painted Lady. 

She blinks a few times, staring up at the aurora flickering above her in a night sky. The blues and greens shimmer through the flowered trees that make up the canopy above her. Plum blossoms, the new memories inform her, plum blossoms and wisteria trees. Closing her eyes, she inhales the floral scent and crunches the snow covered ground between her fingers. It’s not cold. She’s probably never going to be cold ever again. She exhales. 

“Katara,” a vaguely familiar voice calls her name. She turns to be greeted by a luminous smile. Out of all of her lives, Katara is still the one who knows her best. 

“Yue.” 

The Moon Spirit beams, as she bends over offering a hand to help Katara sit up. She’s older in appearance now, closer to the age Katara was when she passed, and even more stunning. Katara doesn’t think she needs to breathe anymore, but Yue causes her to lose her breath nonetheless. 

She waits for Katara to finish patting off her black and white robes, before handing over her veiled hat. “I know this is not what you expected, Katara, but I must say that I’m happy to have you here.” 

Katara stares for a moment, watching maple leaves, petals and snow dance around the other woman, before reaching out to grasp her hand. Yue graces her with another smile. “I’m happy you’re here, too, Yue.” 

Interlocking their fingers, Yue leads them to a pristine lake, and takes a step onto the water. “Well, Painted Lady, let’s go. There’s so much I need to show you.” 

In theory, Katara could easily find her way around the sprawling lands of the Spirit World thanks to the memories and knowledge the previous Painted Lady had passed on to her. She’s also pretty certain the Moon Spirit would have done the same for Yue, and that Yue would have been aware of this formality. However, a part of Katara gets it. She, too, wants to spend more time with an old friend. 

So Katara squeezes her hand and follows her onto the lake. “Well, show the way, then.” 

___

In the beginning, Katara often finds herself watching over those she left behind. 

She sees Aang flourish with the other Air Nomads by his side, she sees Toph roughing her students around, she sees Sokka graduate and improve the design of the airships, she sees Zuko playing hide-and-seek with his daughter, she sees Suki fight for the rights of non-benders, she sees Gran Gran tend to the refugees from the North, she sees her dad find love again in his later years. 

She watches them reunite on Ember Island every summer to frolic in the waves, and she watches her students preserve the tradition of Southern bending. She watches them remember her. She watches them mourn and she watches them rejoice, but most importantly she watches them move on. She watches them find happiness. 

Maybe in another life she could have been there with them, but this is the path she has chosen. Thus, Katara throws herself into her newfound duties as the Painted Lady. It’s an easy transition with the memories of her former incarnation and her waterbending still intact. She splits her time between watching over her protected waters and exploring the Spirit World with Yue. 

She soothes the aches of those who enter her rivers, and guides the occasional person who has become trapped by the undertow safely to the shore. She helps those she is able to, but with her limited powers and range of jurisdiction, she soon finds herself becoming frustrated. She can watch humanity suffer from beyond in the Spirit World, but she is incapable of helping those who need it the most. She knows the two realms are separate for a reason, but surely there is more she could be doing. There has to be. 

___

Yue is the one to inspire a solution. 

Over a meal of stewed sea prunes in her private garden, Yue hums along as Katara vents her disappointment towards not being able to help more people. “I just wish I could do more,” Katara huffs, “But I don’t have enough spiritual power to enter the human realm more often, and I can only work within the waters of the Outer Islands.” 

“I wish I could offer you some of my own power, but the major Spirits are not allowed to split their powers amongst lower ranking Spirits nor directly interfere with the matters of humanity. It is only through the Avatar that we are able to have a more immediate influence on the human world,” Yue explains with a sigh, resting her hand on Katara’s knee. 

Katara furrows her brow. “I know Tui and La lived in the human world, but why was Tui able to bless you as an infant? Is that not directly interfering with humanity?” 

“Tui was allowed to act then because they had seen a possible future where they would be slain. Balance cannot exist without the Moon, so they were allowed to bless me as a failsafe. As the Moon Spirit, I have a fair amount of power, but it’s really the Nature Spirits like you that can move more freely between the realms,” Yue offered, before handing Katara a cup of tea. 

“Thanks,” she smiled, taking a sip as she pondered over Yue’s words. As the Painted Lady and as a mortal, Katara has had her fair share of encounters with Nature Spirits. Most of them held a strong disdain for humanity, and tended to lash out when harm had come to their assigned domains. The majority of them had no interest in helping humans; only in protecting their waters or land. It was a strongly held belief in the Spirit World that humans were not trustworthy, but… but Spirits were. 

Katara sets down her tea, and latches onto Yue’s arm. “What?” she questions with a tilt of her head. 

“The Nature Spirits! They don’t trust humanity, but who do they trust?” 

“Fellow Spirits..?” 

“Yes, Spirits!” Katara is practically thrumming with excitement. “They won’t freely offer assistance to humans, but they will work together with another Spirit if it is in their best interest. They would be willing to cooperate with me!” 

Yue’s eyes widen. “Nature Spirits have no restrictions on who they can share their spiritual energy with.”

“And because most of them were never human, they don’t understand how to best convey their gripes to the human world!”

“They really do not,” Yue giggles, and reaches out to grab Katara’s hands.

“But I do!” Katara adds, squeezing Yue’s hands in between hers. 

“You do,” Yue smiles, “Sounds like you are going to be pretty busy, Painted Lady.” 

She knows it is the Avatar’s duty to maintain balance between the Spirit World and the human one, but surely there is nothing wrong with some assistance. Katara is well aware how plagued by troubles the Four Nations are after the conclusion of the Hundred Year War. Aang cannot be everywhere, and he certainly does not have all the answers. No matter how powerful, the balance of the world is not something that solely rests on the shoulders of the Avatar. Everyone shares a bit of the burden, and the Painted Lady is fully capable of lightening the load. 

“I’m ready,” Katara declares. 

___

Katara throws herself into her newfound duties. She follows rumors of disgruntled Spirits to the farthest corners of the Spirit World, and finds herself encountering beings that not even the previous Painted Lady had the pleasure of meeting. Although initially reluctant to share their spiritual energy, her fellow Nature Spirits are soon seeking her out to deal with disrespectful humans. 

She purifies rivers, clears blockages, and destroys the occasional factory. If she has enough energy to spare, then she will use it to heal the sick she comes across. She probably ventures into the human world more than any other Spirit, but she has no qualms about hard work, and the happiness of the Spirits and the humans she helps is an award in it’s own. Despite the memories of her previous life temporarily fading in the human world, she doesn’t mind. She doesn’t cross the boundary of the human and Spirit worlds to wallow in the memories of the life she left prematurely; it is not about that. She is there to help. 

Between wandering the Spirit World and crossing over to the human one, she finds herself by Yue’s side. Maybe it’s because they both know what it is like to have been human, maybe it’s because they both remember life in the Water Tribes, maybe it’s because they didn’t get long enough the first time they met, but Katara finds herself returning to Yue’s lunar garden again and again. 

They admire the permanently blooming trees while drinking tea, they share the offerings left at their respective shrines, they play an overly complex game of tag atop the lake, they visit the South during the Winter Solstice to watch the storybending performances, and they visit the North to view the annual memorial in honor of Yue. 

Katara knows that no matter how many times they part that they will undoubtedly meet again, but over time she finds herself lingering more and more when it comes time to say goodbye. She is pleased to find that Yue appears to feel the same way, that despite having eternity, she also doesn’t want the moment to end. 

They have a routine. No matter what, before returning to their respective duties, Yue will always be the one to place the conical hat on Katara’s head and lower the veil. Things change the day that Yue lowers the veil while still standing under the brim of the hat. 

Katara’s face turns a bright red when she realizes how close the other woman is, but she doesn’t look away. She doesn’t think she could look away even if she tried, not when Yue’s eyes are boring into hers like that. 

“Yue?” 

“Yes?” 

“May I kiss you?” 

The brightness of her smile could put the Sun to shame, “Yes, please.” 

So Katara does. 

This change is quickly added to the routine. 

___

There are some things that not even the Moon, Sun, Ocean, Earth, and Wind Spirits can interfere with: life, death and rebirth. However, this does not stop them from viewing it. 

On the edge of the sky, where the planet below can be seen, souls are gathered to be sent to their next life. Some will be human, some will be animals, and others will be a blade of grass or a fly. Some of these lives are a punishment, some of them are a reward, and others are simply a part of the journey. However, no matter the designation, the process of rebirth is the most beautiful sight any Spirit or mortal can witness. If Katara had to describe it, the closest thing would be the fireworks of the Fire Nation, but with the grace of the aurora. 

The first rebirth Katara watches is the one of the girl that was murdered by the same assassin shortly after her death. The girl leaves for her next life in the Earth Kingdom as a burst of yellow. 

Shortly after that Gran Gran also departs for the next life with aquamarine sparkles, and years later her dad follows with a majestic purple. Gran Gran finds a new home among the burgeoning Air Nomads, and her father becomes the daughter of fishermen in the Fire Nation. 

She also witnesses the rebirth of her assassin and that of Ozai. The assassin becomes a mosquito, and Ozai returns to the earth as a sapling planted in the very land he had tried to destroy. 

Aang is the first to go among her friends. He joyfully moves on with an explosion all the colors of the rainbow. It does not feel like a goodbye, however, when the Avatar Spirit becomes one with her niece. 

As the decades fly by, the souls of Suki, Zuko and Toph all find their way to the Spirit World and promptly move on to their new beginnings. Katara is grateful that this time destiny has blessed them all with loving parents. 

Yue joins her when the time finally comes for Sokka as well. Her brother somehow makes it to the age of one hundred, and passes away peacefully in his sleep surrounded by his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. 

Back when she was only Master Katara of the Southern Water Tribe, she used to think that they would be together forever. That she would never know life without her brother. She was wrong, but…. But as she holds Yue’s hand tight, and watches her brother’s soul prepare to journey to his next life in one of the developing cities, she doesn’t think she was completely wrong. 

They may never meet in this life nor the next nor the one after that, but someday somewhere she may find herself coming across one of the people her brother has become. One of the people any of her friends and family have become. Forever may not be possible, but Katara believes in destiny. And some people you are destined to meet more than once. 

“I'm happy, Sokka,” she confesses as she watches his soul be reborn with the blues and greens of the Southern Lights, “In the next life I hope you are, too.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all, thank you so much for all the kudos, bookmarks and comments! <3 I hope you enjoyed the conclusion to this fic, and I would love to hear your thoughts :3 
> 
> This is my [tumblr](https://the-yellowturtle.tumblr.com/) if you wanna say hi :)


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